SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

In a 'Leeds Retro' feature on page 17 of the Yorkshire Evening Post today (July 22 2013) there is an article about an excavation of coal after a 2ft seam was discovered near the surface in the Carlton Hill area just off Woodhouse Lane. The article has a small photo (possibly dated July 25 1964) showing some mined coal ready for putting into lorries. The article states lorries were "hurrying" to take the coal "away to various National Coal Board depots up and down the country". There must therefore have been significant mining, if only for a short while.I've tried to find out more but have not been able to find anything (certainly not fairly readily) so I wonder if anyone knows any more information and/or at least a link to any.

Leodian wrote: In a 'Leeds Retro' feature on page 17 of the Yorkshire Evening Post today (July 22 2013) there is an article about an excavation of coal after a 2ft seam was discovered near the surface in the Carlton Hill area just off Woodhouse Lane. The article has a small photo (possibly dated July 25 1964) showing some mined coal ready for putting into lorries. The article states lorries were "hurrying" to take the coal "away to various National Coal Board depots up and down the country". There must therefore have been significant mining, if only for a short while.I've tried to find out more but have not been able to find anything (certainly not fairly readily) so I wonder if anyone knows any more information and/or at least a link to any. Fascinating!!The coal seams do reach as far as Woodhouse moor where bell pits are recorded as having been sunk. Coal seams outcrop all over most of Leeds and there's a lot of shallow mining with this outcrop coal being the first coal dug.My guess is they were developing some land, hit the seam, and found out it had enough value to strip it opencast and send off to the NCB.Mr. G. Rumpey-Tramp Leeds mineral extraction genius should be consulted. All will then be revealed

I wonder if the coal seam may have been found during some preparatory work for the Leeds Inner Ring Road?

Leodian wrote: I wonder if the coal seam may have been found during some preparatory work for the Leeds Inner Ring Road? Possibly. Ad-hoc mining activity such as this is often related to development of some kind - clearing out the excavation area/foundations. In the late 1980s, such activity took place at Killingbeck during excavations to create the retail/office park (where ASDA is).

D'ya mean Asda HQ or diagonally oppo Crown Point Retail?Didn't know they had coal there.There may have had to be major groundworks for contaminated land, remediation etc.

Jogon wrote: D'ya mean Asda HQ or diagonally oppo Crown Point Retail?Didn't know they had coal there.There may have had to be major groundworks for contaminated land, remediation etc. No, he means Killingbeck - opposite Seacroft hospital

Sorry guys, see that now

This will have almost certainly have been coal removed from the outcrop of the Better Bed which has sweeps around Woodhouse Moor and along the Aire Valley before being truncated by faults.The Better Bed coal has been an economically important seam in the North and East of the city; it being particular useful when used in the iron industry with the Black Bed Ironstone which lies above and the very valuable fireclay which forms the Better Bed pavement. In the Woodhouse Moor area and further south and west the coal thins to become of no real economic interest. There are no records of old workings in this area, but it is likely that ancient workings have taken place.Often when building new structures the existence of coal seams present specific problems such as the stability of the structure where there are old workings, unrecorded shafts/adits, gas migration etc. To mitigate these risks one can do all sorts:# fill old workings with grout# install impermeable barriers to prevent methane, carbon monoxide etc migration.# supersize foundation designs# remove the coal # etcAny coal close to the surface will become sterilised by the development and will never realise it's economic value. Equally it may be necessary when excavating foundations etc to excavate coalThis is where the dear old National Coal Board (NCB) will have stepped in. Following the nationalisation of the coal industry at Vesting Day in 1947; the majority of the UK coal reserves were owned by the State and remain owned by the State (under the authority of the Coal Authority). Any excavation through coal required the NCB's approval and they would often step in to remove coal in advance of development (there is a good contemporary example just down the road from me, where in the 1960s the NCB licenced the removal of coal at outcrops along the alignment of the then new M90 motorway as it headed through Fife)This process carries on to this day. More often than not the common approach is to grout old workings (I passed dozens of drilling rigs last week grouting mine workings on the edge of Glasgow in advance of the contract award for the completion of the M8 motorway linking Glasgow to Edinburgh). The Coal Authority still offer opportunities to the coal industry to remove coal in advance of development, by way of example there are a number of sites in Leeds in this recent notice:http://coal.decc.gov.uk/assets/coal/wha ... ne2013.pdf

The attached image shows the approximate alignment of the Better Bed Coal outcrop (taken from the first series Geological Plans)

Thanks grumpytramp for all that information. I would guess that there is still some viable coal in the area. I wonder if the trolleybus work will come across any!